Public Art Saint Paul invites you to participate in an assembly of artists and scientists
Saturday, March 13
9:00am – 5:00pm
at CoCo
214 West 4th Street, 4th Floor
(in Lowertown directly across from the Union Depot)
Park in the Union Depot garage (enter on Sibley) or in the lot at corner of 4th and Wacouta (enter on Wacouta).
Do not park at street meters – they are harshly enforced even on Saturdays!
In an effort to cultivate a robust climate for collaboration between the arts and sciences in our region and beyond, Public Art St. Paul has launched a series of generative, cross-disciplinary conversations between artists and scientists (see information below on Hunting and Gathering Walks).
The purpose for this initiative is to generate a vital network of artists and scientists who want to explore how partnership across the disciplines can contribute to a more sustainable environment.
This day is organized around an “Open Space Technology” conference framework and will be facilitated by Wendy Morris of the Creative Leadership Studio. Open Space Technology poses a convening question (Artists and Scientists and The Environment: What is Possible Together?) It allows participants to self-organize around the issues and opportunities that are of critical importance to everyone in the room. (see description below of Open Space Technology).
Please come and be a part of building stronger connections between artists and scientists toward a healthier environment.
Breakfast, lunch and snacks will be provided and we will close with a reception to celebrate the work of the day.
Who Will Be There?
We expect approximately 40 participants. See attached list of core Hunting and Gathering Team and their guests who have so far responded to our invitation.
Preparing Yourself for The Day
1. View The Hunting and Gathering Blog (http://pasphuntandgather.blogspot.com)
2. Consult the Art/Science Environmental Links recommended by Olive Bieringa (attached)
3. Attend, if possible, the lecture by Lucy Lippard, internationally known art critic, theorist and author at the University of Minnesota on Tuesday, March 4 in the Cowles Auditorium, Hubert H. Humphrey Center, 6:00-7:30pm: Women and Water Rights: THREE INSPIRING WOMEN CONNECTING FOR ACTION. Call Amy at Public Art Saint Paul for more information: 651-290-0921
What Should You Bring?
The core team artists are preparing displays that will be available for viewing and interaction throughout the day. We ask that each of our core team scientists and guests for the day each bring a small display (think “foot in the door!”) for table top or easy tacking on a wall that represents what you do (your scientific or artistic work). Bring these with you on March 13 and our staff will set them up as the agenda setting session proceeds.
What Does the Day Look Like?
| 9:00-9:45 | Arrival and coffee Set the Context: table displays and art experience by Olive Bieringa and Marcus Young |
| 9:45-10:45 | Set the day’s agenda (facilitated by Wendy Morris) |
| 10:45 – noon | Break-out session #1 |
| Noon – 12:30 | Lunch |
| 12:30 – 1:45 | Session 2 |
| 1:45 – 3:00 | Session 3 |
| 3:00 – 4:00 | Report back from sessions and closing |
| 4:00 – 5:00 | Reception/cocktail party |
About Hunting and Gathering Walks
Since fall, 2009 20 artists and scientists have been engaged in a series of conversational walks along Saint Paul's Mississippi riverfront landscape. This program was imagined and proposed by performance artist Olive Bieringa while she served as a Sustainable Artmaking Fellow in 2008-09. The program has been developed in conversations with Saint Paul City Artist in Residence Marcus Young and Dr. David King. Hunting and Gathering, the fellowships and artist residency are all programs of Public Art Saint Paul.
Hunting & Gathering has been a chance for scientists and artists to simply to be, walk, and talk with another person from a discipline usually remote from their scientific research and artistic practice. By reaching out across a wide distance of understanding we hoped to create a dynamic to explore how public art can contribute to the essential work of making our world more sustainable.
The artists come from multiple media, including conceptual and performance art, dance, photography, video, sound and sculpture. Scientists from academia and industry work in a broad range of fields including chemistry and physics, ecology, geology and hydrology, neuroscience. All have a deep interest in environmental sustainability.
We invite you to follow their conversations on the project blog: http://pasphuntandgather.blogspot.com
At dinner in January, the artists and scientists discussed their experiences. The open space technology gathering on March 13 was their agreed next step and each member of the core team has extended invitations to artists and scientists who share their deep interest in the environment and would be passionate about engaging in this creative conversation.
About Open Space Technology
The Co-Intelligence Institute www.co-intelligence.org/P-Openspace.html
Open Space Technology was created in the mid-1980s by organizational consultant Harrison Owen when he discovered that people attending his conferences loved the coffee breaks better than the formal presentations and plenary sessions. Combining that insight with his experience of life in an African village, Owen created a totally new form of conferencing.
Open Space conferences have no keynote speakers, no pre-announced schedules of workshops, no panel discussions, no organizational booths. Instead, sitting in a large circle, participants learn in the first hour how they are going to create their own conference. Almost before they realize it, they become each other's teachers and leaders.
Anyone who wants to initiate a discussion or activity, writes it down on a large sheet of paper in big letters and then stands up and announces it to the group. After selecting one of the many pre-established times and places, they post their proposed workshop on a wall. When everyone who wants to has announced and posted their initial offerings, it is time for "the village marketplace": Participants mill around the wall, putting together their personal schedules for the remainder of the conference. The first meetings begin immediately.
Open Space is more highly organized than the best planning committee could possibly manage. It is also chaotic, productive and fun. No one is in control. A whirlwind of activity is guided from within by a handful of simple Open Space principles.
The most basic principle is that everyone who comes to an Open Space conference must be passionate about the topic and willing to take some responsibility for creating things out of that passion.
Four other key principles are:
1) Whoever comes are the right people.
2) Whatever happens is the only thing that could have.
3) Whenever it starts is the right time.
4) When it is over it is over.
An Open Space principle is The Law of Two Feet: "If you find yourself in a situation where you aren't learning or contributing, go somewhere else." This law causes some participants to flit from activity to activity. Owen rejoices in such people, calling them bumblebees because they cross-pollinate all the workshops. He also celebrates participants who use The Law of Two Feet to go off and sit by themselves. He dubs them butterflies, because they create quiet centers of non-action for stillness, beauty, novelty or random conversations to be born.
Open Space Technology is a delightful, useful tool for any group of people who are really interested in exploring something that they all care deeply about. I look forward to its broad use in organizing communities and exploring public issues.
Open Space is one of the simplest, most brilliant combinations of order and chaos that I have yet found. It has been applied in thousands of meetings around the world with between five and one thousand participants. It can be effectively used by virtually anybody.
Resources
http://www.openingspace.net/openSpaceTechnology_method.shtml
About Public Art Saint Paul
Public Art Saint Paul (PASP) brings artists together with communities to shape a public realm that fosters imagination, explores and illuminates civic values and the community’s evolving history, and strengthens public places as vessels of our shared civic life.
For over 23 years, PASP has created opportunities for artists to shape the public realm and transform the experience of public places in Minnesota’s capital city. PASP develops community, public agency, and financial partnerships to support artists working in the public realm. PASP pursues activities that promote social justice and catalyze social change; foster community building and international amity; promote stewardship of art and the environment; and re-envision our relationship and responsibilities to nature.
Through our efforts, artists have created parks, streetscapes, bridges, and a bandstand. They have reclaimed inner-city properties as community gathering places; they have created works for public buildings; they have engaged in sustainable artmaking and produced temporary installations and public art events.
PASP’s Beyond Green program engages artists to re-envision our relationship to nature, impacting the form and experience of public place and promoting sustainable behavior in the civic realm. Since 2007, Beyond Green has sponsored and partnered in producing Sustainable Artmaking Fellowships, public recycling in Mears Park, Wishes for the Sky -- Saint Paul’s annual Earth Day event, creation of two new public artworks based upon environmental themes and sustainable practice, and launched an artist residency in watershed districts. Inspired by Sustainable Artmaking fellow Olive Bieringa, Hunting and Gathering Walks between artists and scientists were launched in 2009.
Hunting and Gathering Walks to form the basis for planning an International Environmental Art Symposium in 2111-12. This symposium will pair artists and scientists to create public artworks, temporary installations and public art events/performances throughout the city.
The Beyond Green program is made possible with support from the Saint Paul, F. R. Bigelow, Huss, Travelers, Hardengergh, Mardag and Unity Avenue Foundations, the Katherine B. Andersen Fund, and Dr. David King.
No comments:
Post a Comment